400 Melee Fans on BGG Stretch Goal - Five Assorted New Things

As the 400 Melee BGG fans goal, here are five assorted new things for The Fantasy Trip . . .

Visit the Kickstarter page today to support the campaign and unlock more stretch goals!

So, to (probably) wrap up my Rule of Five offerings, we have a mixed bag: two slimes, one more slime that might be a rumor, one rumor that might be true, and a plant. Don’t get me started on whether algae is really a plant. For game purposes, it’s a plant, okay?

Gray Slime

This slime does not attack travelers directly. It animates its victims, or bodies that it finds, as zombies while slowly eating the flesh from within. Before the zombie reaches the “skeleton” point, it will be unable to move. The gray slime will finish the last scraps of flesh and flow away. However, if the zombie can bite a living victim, or if some foolish mammalian or reptilian scavenger tries to eat the zombie, it will transmit spores that may have unpredictable bad effects.

The slime zombie can also leave parts of itself lying around to serve as “starters” for new Gray Slime. If you find just the bones of a hand lying in the labyrinth, perhaps that’s what happened.

Mud Slime

Black and brown blotched, the Mud Slime looks like the mud it hides in. Mud Slimes are found underground, underwater, or in very deep forest. They find or dig a hole big enough to hold them, perhaps a foot across and a foot deep. Then they crawl in and wait. When something steps in, or tries to drink the water on top of the “mudhole,” the Mud Slime will quickly engulf it and harden (4/DX roll to sense the attack and pull away).

Against small victims, or even deer, this means death. Quick death if the head was covered, slow if a foot is trapped, but still death. Then the slime feeds.

On a human hand or foot it’s more of a nuisance. The rare Acid Touch spell will let the victim pull free immediately. Otherwise, 30 points of damage with blunt weapons will break up the hardened slime . . . if it does not suddenly liquefy and try to flee before that.

DX is -4, and MA is only 2, if you have a slime on your foot. DX is -6, and MA is reduced by 2, if it is stuck on your hand – and of course you cannot use that hand.

Giant Slime

Even the great Tarsus never reported seeing a Giant Slime, though he interviewed people who said they had. They spoke of greenish Slimes bigger than ten men, covering megahexes of roof area, or rising from the swamp. They smell like Green Slime, and they fear fire like Green Slime, but they move more quickly. And how much strength would a monster like this have?

Whatever they are, if they are anything at all, they are not just Goo. Goo has a clear body with a visible nucleus, and it smells nothing like a slime.

The Lake Where All Hunger

Stories are told of a large lake, so large you can’t see across it at some points, but not an ocean; it’s fresh water. Its location is not certain because – if it exists at all – it’s a hard place to explore.

As one approaches the lake, food becomes less and less nutritious. Long before you can see the water, you will have to eat twice as much food, or more, just to stay healthy, and you will feel hunger pains anyway. By the time you reach the water, no amount, and no kind, of food will nourish you. Magically produced food is no better than regular rations. And if you enter the lake, or try to cross, you will get hungrier fast, as your body consumes itself.

The forest around the lake is said to be dreary and wild, with few animals, and those apparently small and secretive. They must be magical or derive their nourishment from magic. The tales are silent about what creatures might live in the lake.

What might be guarded by an enchantment this simple and powerful?

Net Algae

Balls of green scum floating in stagnant water, net algae looks harmless but can tighten around a victim, hampering their movement and possibly drowning them. The alae then grows on the body.

Roll 2 dice vs. Strength to escape a glob of algae the size of a goat, 3 dice if it’s the size of a cow, 4 dice if it’s larger.

Net algae has metal in it, which is what makes it so strong. Some villages know the secret of spinning it into a glimmering green material that is as light and flexible as cloth but protects like chainmail; it is called “water armor.” The GM may set any price for this that he likes, if it’s available at all! The drawback is that once it’s damaged, the rips slowly lengthen, and no one knows how to fix it. But it is wonderful while it lasts.

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To discuss this latest extra for use with The Fantasy Trip roleplaying game, please join the conversation on the forums. To join in and support the project, visit the Kickstarter page today.